Dear Barilla, (UPDATED)

Barillo Pasta Jerk

I am a 50-something year old woman, married to my husband for almost 32 years, and we have 3 children we love dearly. I believe we probably fit Mr. Guido Barilla's concept of the "sacred family" with an added bonus for him: we love, love, love our Italian food. But from here on in, Barilla products will not be a must-have staple in our pantry.

The problem  is our "sacred family" includes a gay child. And we love our gay son more than any product Mr. Barilla could offer us, which is why we will choose to give our business to another company whose values more closely match ours.

You see, in our country, Mr. Barilla is free to voice his opinions, and we, his customers are just as free to choose some other company's product should we find his views reprehensible and homophobic. I just hope Mr. Barilla realizes that for every person or group of persons he chooses to demean when going public with his opinions, there is a potential "sacred family" who loves that person far more than any product Guido Barilla could put on our grocery store shelves.

Mr. Guido has lost this "sacred family" as customers.

Sincerely,
A seething mom

What has me so worked up? This.

UPDATE: US Division Of Barilla Apologizes (Via: JMG):

UPDATE #2: And Barilla replies to my angry comment on their website:

Dear Kim,

At Barilla, we consider it our mission to treat our consumers and partners as our neighbors – with love and respect – and to deliver the very best products possible. We take this responsibility seriously and consider it a core part of who we are as a family-owned company.

We are working hard to learn from this experience, and appreciate you taking the time to share your comments and valuable feedback.

Sincerely,

Barilla

Case # 157811

UPDATE #3: Guido speaks: